analu (Porto, Portugal): this isn’t about me

“it starts as a moving image. And somehow, this moving image is meant to represent me. but the funny thing is: as soon as I start feeling someone else’s presence nearby, this image shifts instantly, like one of those photo filters, you know? … it simply won’t stick to one thing.” This will be the presentation of ‘this isn’t about me’, a durational online performance which will be happening during nov-dec2020 through online platforms. This work will reveal the unravelling, unrolling, the extending out of and the curling back into the shell, driven by curiosity, fear, trust and uncertainty: the disclosure of one’s multiplicity and heterogeneity. – The idea for this project came during the FAICC program, on which we had to create a small performance related to the ‘self-portrait’ theme. It appeared suddenly, through a mirror reflection. By a mirror, I could be mentioning any kind of surface where our image can be projected, whether it is an artificial object, a natural element, with all of its veracity and distortion. And even if it’s always me, my body, being projected, the end result was always so unpredictable. It is a questioning about the definition of identity and the massive importance that is given to this image, this labeling of individual existentialism: a simple question, but one that englobes a broad number of topics. As it is a possibly unanswerable question and one of eternal debate, it was essential to search for an embodied response. Initially, very important references appeared in German and French Philosophy from the 19th and 20th centuries, in the words of Heidegger, Husserl, Sartre and de Beauvoir, revolutionary thinkers and creators of existentialism. In dance, counter-dance and performance, artists such as Marina Abramovic, Tino Sehgal and Jérôme Bel arrived as sources of inspiration for the movement related to this idea. With the intention of studying the complete surrender, immersion in a performative event, I began to observe and accept this mutational body, full of plasticity, in a sparkling dance that crosses the visible and the invisible, the macro and the micro, in linearity with the Lavoisier’s law of physics (‘nothing is created, nothing is lost, everything is transformed’): the non-thought movement, organic, a translation of life (because everything that is alive moves). The doubt of a ‘pure self’ started emerging, for an individual is a whole sum of particles from its experience – from its creation in the womb, until its last exhale -, particles that are so often imperceptible even for the self. In this line of thought, came the need for porosity between the spectator-maker, the disintegration of the traditional interpreter-public relationship, allowing participants to interact with the interpreter and to rewrite themselves accordingly, revealing and showing the social, communicative components of human condition. Within this aspect it is possible to return the power to the participant, because only their reaction / response will determine what happens afterwards. The full affirmation of identity can only happen with the transformation of the self, a ‘shaping and being shaped’ process that is only possible through surrender, trust and delivery. Therefore, I live not only in my own recognition, but also in an external recognition, which also identifies me, reflects me, shapes me and changes me. I’m born, I exist and I die over and over again, in a constant metamorphosis.

BIO: analu was born in portugal, where she began her artistic journey in dance and music, as she was a child. teenage rebellion made her go through a scientifical path. it wouldn’t be until 2016, when she finished her masters in medicine, that she’d reconnect with the glow of creative beauty, diving into the dream dimension and finding out on how to make it a reality, something palpable, tangible. filled with enthusiasm and curiosity, comes the need of jumping into deep experimentation. analu is a performer, researcher, inventor and independent artist. analu is multi-dimensional, in constant change, creating galaxies that questions topics such as identities (real and virtual), existentialism, ridiculousness, everyday life, the undercovered and the animal-wild-inborn state.